Communicating and presenting: Presentation aids

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Do not rely too much on your notes. You should know your presentation well enough to get through it with a series of “triggers” or “paragraph headings” designed to ensure you stick to a logical structure and do not leave out anything essential.

Diagrams and visuals (if not too complicated/small to fit on a screen) can help to explain things and liven up your presentation. Similarly, using PowerPoint slides (and equivalents) is fine, if you use them correctly. Avoid too many words on a slide, otherwise your listeners will read the slides instead of listening to you. Also, do not read out entire slides on behalf of your listener. You can blank out a PowerPoint slide (by pressing “B”) whilst you talk, then let the slide appear at the end as a simple summary of what you have just said. Alternatively, you could take a short pause each time you turn to a new slides, as this will give the reader the chance to skim over it without missing your introductory sentence(s).

Try to give out hand-outs at the end if possible, otherwise your listeners may ignore you and read the hand-out whilst you are talking.

See the other parts in our communicating and presenting series to further refine your skills.